


Bring Me Life In A Million Colours, Bring Me Love Like No Other

by ominousrum



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence, Canon Universe, F/M, season 5 spec fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-09-25 11:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9819521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ominousrum/pseuds/ominousrum
Summary: “I don’t know how to say goodbye.” Emma struggles to loose the words from her throat. Goodbye is a bird she wants to keep caged.





	

**Author's Note:**

> itty bitty spec fic for 5x20. lyric title taken from We Lovers by Ohbijou

““Only true love shall pass.” Killian translates the stone altar, to Emma’s surprise. 

“I guess it doesn’t come with instructions?” she breathes a shaky sigh, heart thundering in her ears. 

“I suppose that would be too easy. True love requires something more.”

“Should we place our hands on it?” Emma leans forward to glance at the smooth stone. There is no evidence of love eroding its surface; love has left no mark.

“I say we go for it,” Killian manages a grin and it soothes her raw nerves like a sip of tea. 

They each place a palm on the altar, fingers touching. Their pulses hum together for a moment. _  
_

_Nothing._

“We should know right away, shouldn’t we? I mean if it didn’t work shouldn’t a giant boulder be chasing us right about now?”

Killian raises a quizzical eyebrow to her but before he can’t speak the ground shakes and he takes her by the hand “Let’s get out of here.”

They run right into a dead end. 

The ground shakes and the world dissolves into gold and jewels glinting around her. Fear grasps Emma’s heart as she watches Hook disappear under a pile of rocks. 

The ground shakes and he takes hold of her hand, pulling himself out of the rubble. A warmth spreads into Killian’s veins as he asks to see the compass. 

The ground shakes and their memories from the top of the beanstalk crumble around them leaving their eyes wet.

“You can still get out of here, Emma.” His voice is hoarse, thick with emotion. 

“No,” she whispers, defiant and frightened all at once.

“You have true love. You _are_ true love, Swan. You can step through this wall, I’m sure of it.”

“I won’t leave without you. **_We_** are true love.” Her fingers dig into his arm until the tips are white and numb.

“You should have let me go,” He reminds her, a faint sadness for the life that could have been lingering in his tone. His voice is matter of fact and it claws into her heart as relentlessly as if Cerberus itself had done so.

“I don’t know how to say goodbye.” Emma struggles to loose the words from her throat. Goodbye is a bird she wants to keep caged.

“I wish we didn’t have to.” 

“I’m sorry, Killian. If you had never fallen in love with me, none of this would have happened.”  She‘s shrinking, curling in on herself in regret as the tears stream down her cheeks. 

“Falling in love with you was the best thing to ever happen to me. I wouldn’t trade a thousand lifetimes for it.” His eyes burn into her, leaving their mark as sobs threaten to claim her.

“I love you,” a hand on his chest, she leans up to press her lips to his. 

A slow, steady rumble in the earth breaks their kiss, her hands still holding on to his lapels. A glow emanates from an archway of an invisible door as the room fades into darkness. 

“Emma, you have to go-” 

“There’s not a day that will go bye I won’t think of you.” Emma forces a smile as she leans her head against his. Her last glimpse of him is love shining in his eyes. 

***

 

The bright blue sky confuses her - the red tinge of the Underworld nowhere to be found. Emma blinks and her family and friends are beside her, just as confused. They’re all standing on the street outside her house, the sun warm on their faces. Storybrooke is quiet but somehow the silence isn’t ominous. The air is crisp and no longer full of decay and sorrow. 

“Killian?” David starts, worry furrowing his brow.

Emma can only shake her head. Her knees nearly buckle and she sucks a long breath through her teeth. 

“We need to give him a proper burial,” she says barely above a whisper, “Regina, can you help with the magic?”

“Of course,” Regina confirms, whisking them away in a cloud of purple. 

They stare dumbfounded at the place where they left his body under a preservation spell. Killian is missing from Regina’s crypt and Emma’s knees finally give way. 

Regina grabs a few ingredients before poofing them to the loft. Emma sits cocooned in the arms of her parents, hearing but not really registering their murmurs of comfort juxtaposed with Regina’s ranting.  
  
”Emma, Robin says he knows where Killian is and we should meet him at Granny’s.” Regina gestures to her phone as she catches Emma’s eye.   
  
Emma finds the strength to stand, the need to see Killian one more time too consuming to ignore. 

***

 

Granny’s looks exactly the same. Emma lets her hand trace the back of a chair closest to the gate on the patio and feels Killian’s thumb ghost across her chin.

“Swan!”

She closes her eyes to the sound, swaying slightly on the spot. She can almost smell the salt of his skin and the leather of his jacket, can almost taste the rum on his lips. 

Her eyes fly open as a hand squeezes hers.

“Turns out death cannot stop true love,” Killian – flesh and blood _alive_ Killian – beams a dazzling smile. 

Emma laughs and launches herself at him, burying her face in his chest. “All it can do is delay it for a while.” 

“I know when you’re quoting something.” Killian smirks, lifting her chin up to welcome his true love home with a kiss.  


End file.
